Shepard and Miranda stood side by side at the head of the briefing room holographic table with Garrus, Jacob, Kasumi, Mordin and Massani haphazardly standing around the table that was showing their preliminary scans of the target area on Korlus.
"Given how soundly I beat up my hands Miranda will be taking the lead on this one." Shepard looked over all five faces and as expected there were no complaints though Garrus did look uncomfortable. With that said she stepped back half a step and nodded to Miranda.
"Our target is the krogan Warlord O'Keer. We believe his lab is located here given the amount of medical equipment and resulting energy traces EDI has detected." she highlighted a position on the holographic map that was a jumble of both ancient and recent ship carcasses, this world was a giant junk yard of scrapped parts. That meant scavengers. "This area is held by Blue Sun mercenaries,"
Massani snorted at that.
Only Shepard knew the real reason for that particular response.
"and the closest landing position for the shuttle is here." a second location some distance from the first lit up.
"Meaning we're going to have to hot foot it, as you humans say." Garrus nodded decisively, standing a little straighter as he did.
"Yes." Miranda brought up the planned route, "This is the quickest route to O'Keer. The Blue Suns will not tolerate our presence so will be considered hostiles. Massani you will be on point, Kasumi you will scout the route ahead, Garrus you will cover us with your sniper, Mordin you will remain on the Normandy to continue your research." she ordered them all with her standard clipped business tone.
They all nodded in understanding of their orders.
Mordin bowed his head respectfully, "Will return to lab then. Available if required though."
Shepard nodded her thanks to him.
"We will all be fitted with cameras so Commander Shepard can see what we can." Miranda advised them, Jacob had already prepared the appropriate gear for that.
Garrus chuckled, "Keeping an eye on us Commander?" he looked to her much more relaxed at that piece of information.
"Of course. I'll offer tactical advice given what we can see from up here but Miranda will make the calls. The cameras will also help us see how you all work together tactically so we can plan better for your individual fighting styles." Shepard returned his grin and her quiet calmness reassured the others that she was perfectly fine with handing the reins of this mission to Miranda.
"Gear up, we'll be dropping in ten minutes." Miranda glanced at the time, calculating their distance from the planet and how quickly they could get this done.
The team filed out quickly, except for Garrus who waited to speak with Shepard alone.
Miranda glanced at him coolly as she passed, knowing that he was going to be speaking with Shepard about her leadership on this mission. Both she and Shepard had anticipated it but it was still highly irritating to have her command questioned by the turian.
"What's up Garrus?" Shepard asked him amiably, smiling up at him.
"You went in to battle with a broken hand. Why are you really letting Miranda take charge? Does this have something to do with you knocking her out again?" He demanded quickly, he would never disobey her order but he needed to understand it.
"No. You saw the state of my hands and Chakwas hasn't cleared me for active duty yet. It'll be a couple days before I can properly hold a gun and when we went after Mordin I still had one good hand." She smirked, "It was my idea actually. Miranda was yelling at me for being reckless and putting the mission behind being unable to lead the ground team." Her grin widened, "You should have seen her face when I suggested she lead it. I have never seen her so surprised before." she reached up and lightly clapped his shoulder, "She'll be fine, follow her orders like you'd follow mine. I'll be watching and bitching at you all from up here." she assured him cheekily.
Garrus nodded then, a little relieved it had been Shepard's idea but still it was concerning what it could mean in the future.
Shepard had made herself quite comfortable in the co-pilot's seat that was rarely used. "You are so right Joker, the leather really does make a huge difference." she grinned over at him.
"What did I tell you Commander." He returned her grin in delight, "I could sleep here!"
"Technically you already do." EDI piped up.
Joker scowled, "And there's the down side. It's like ship cancer, I liked the Normandy better when she was nice and quiet."
"Aw Joker, you'll hurt her feelings saying things like that." Shepard chuckled at his displeasure at the AI.
Both Joker and EDI responded at the same time.
"It doesn't have feelings."
"I don't have feelings Commander."
Shepard looked from Joker to EDI's blue orb and burst out laughing, "That was priceless!"
Joker went red and glared daggers at EDI's orb.
"If you're about done antagonizing our pilot and AI..." Miranda's voice cut in, "We've just landed in case you hadn't noticed."
"Yes I had noticed. Something else I noticed, an increase in Blue Suns chatter." Shepard pointedly didn't tell Miranda what to do with that information just yet.
"Well then let's be quick about this." Miranda motioned for the team to move out.
Joker cast a sidelong glance at Shepard, "Hey Commander, you really okay with this?" he murmured so as his voice wasn't caught by the comms.
"Yep." Shepard was scanning the feeds of the squads cameras calmly but with alertness.
"You're letting a Cerberus operative lead on your mission." Joker was stunned as all get out at how casually Shepard was taking this.
Shepard muted her comms for a moment, "I'm letting an amazing XO do her job while I'm stuck on enforced 'bed rest'. Now quit complaining, I'm resting."
Joker guffawed with mirth, "Yes ma'am."
"The mercs seem to have something of a... situation on their hands." Kasumi's voice murmured through their comms.
"Other than us I gather." Garrus frowned, looking around with his predatory gaze for the higher ground amidst this graveyard of ships to provide sniper cover fire though it wasn't looking promising. There was plenty of high ground but the path through the ships hulls and debris was too protected for it to be of any use.
Kasumi chuckled, "Oh yeah. Krogan's. No Blood Pack markings, no markings at all in fact." she mused as she spied on a group of Blue Suns trying to pin down two of the huge reptiles who were roaring at them in rage and firing rather haphazardly at the mercs but still causing major chaos.
"Are they along our route?" Miranda asked as Jacob and Massani led the way through a path littered with rubble which would make for excellent cover, both for them and the mercs.
"Yes. You'll come up behind the mercs, there's eight of them against two krogans, all humans." Kasumi informed the operative from her stealthed position skirting around the edge of the fight.
Hearing that Shepard muted her comms to as not to distract the ground team, "EDI are there any networks you can hack?" She figured it would be prudent to find out what was going on with the mercs and krogans so they could give the ground team a heads up.
"Yes. Their communication network uses weak encryption but I cannot acquire full access to the labs." EDI informed the Commander.
"Patch us and Miranda into the communications and show me what you can get on the labs." She addressed the AI then she flicked off the mute, "Miranda, EDI's going to patch you into their comms."
Miranda glanced up at a loudspeaker that was crackling out the arrogant, belittling speech of the woman who clearly thought she was in charge of this particular Blue Suns operation. "They're broadcasting orders over loudspeakers... charming." she responded to Shepard, her tone dripping with sarcasm.
"Well, subtlety really isn't their strong suite. Then again... there are people on OUR squad who are hardly subtle." Shepard sighed, she was looking at Massani's screen that was focussed on Miranda right now. She flicked her comms to speak directly to him, "Massani aren't you supposed to be on point?"
Massani scoffed at her, "You're enjoying the view as much as I am."
"Yeah and when I say 'watch her arse' I mean 'make sure it doesn't get any bullets in it', not that she needs your covering her..." Shepard cleared her throat as she realized just where she'd sent their imaginations, "Damnit eyes forward you dirty old man." Came Shepard's instant response.
Joker chuckled.
"I'd be doing you a favour, you could kiss her-" Massani was cut off by Shepard.
"As fun as that sounds you're forgetting one thing. She'd kick my arse AND yours, now move it old man or I'll beat the shit out of you when you get back here." Shepard growled at him seriously.
Massani just smirked, he knew no matter how 'injured' Shepard appeared she was always up for hitting something that pissed her off and she hit pretty damn hard before she could plaster a krogans face out the other side of its hump. "Yes ma'am." he chuckled and got back to the mission.
Flicking her comms open to the whole team again, "EDI's hacked into some of the security system." Shepard paused as she was obviously taking it in and deciding the best way in which to share what she was seeing. "Huh. Looks like our Warlord is releasing krogan... urgh tank breds." she groaned, her thoughts immediately went to Virmire and Saren's breeding facility, along with having lost Alenko. "I suddenly have lost any residual desire I had to recruit this krogan." she sighed in dismay.
"I'm not going to bother trying to convince you of the necessity of recruiting him." Miranda took cover as they engaged the mercs from their flanks, the heavier sound of the assault rifles of Jacob and Massani joined by her lighter semi-machine pistol and the crack of Garrus's sniper echoed through the debris and hulls around them.
"I know. That person you said was broadcasting over loud speakers didn't happen to be a woman did it?" Shepard asked with unhidden resignation.
"Yes." Miranda leaned out of her cover overloading the shields of a merc which Garrus promptly shot between the eyes dropping him instantly.
"I'm betting it's Jedore, she's the commander of this particular pocket of scum. According to this it looks like she's wanting to build an army of krogan... really what is it with people these days wanting tank bred krogans? They've got the intelligence of vorcha."
"No need for the commentary, just the facts Shepard." Miranda muttered, ducking back behind her cover as a merc got a bead on her and began peppering her shields.
"O'Keer's breeding the tank breds for her but he's also the one responsible for releasing them though. No idea why he'd suddenly release them and leave them weapons to fight with, perhaps he's testing his creations, showing Jedore what she's buying, forcing her to pay more for his services..."
"Shepard." Miranda growled.
"Fine, no commentary. There's at least three dozen krogans running around with a whole heap more still in their pods. The mercs are getting them under control slowly but losing a lot of manpower in the process. The thickest fighting is to the east of your position so unless a merc calls in you're not krogans..."
"They'll just expect mindless krogans." Miranda motioned for Jacob and Massani to continue on when the last of the mercs fell.
"Exactly. EDI's also detecting at least two YMIR mechs in the labs themselves, stationed and active in the main krogan pod storage chamber."
"Is that where O'Keer is located?" Miranda asked as she jogged passed the shattered bodies of the mercs they'd just killed not even giving them a second glance, not a first one either really. Dealling with two YMIR mechs would be tricky but not impossible.
"Unsure. EDI's getting some research data but nothing more that can be helpful tactically right now." Shepard responded sounding a little distracted.
Miranda didn't ask what had Shepard's attention as if it was important Shepard would tell her once she'd figured it out. She motioned Massani forward and frowned as she noticed his lingering eyes and smirk before he moved on as ordered. Scowling she opted not to make a big deal of it as long as he obeyed orders and continued engaging the mercs effectively.
Garrus was quite impressed as Miranda guided the unique squad through the debris, rubble, mercs and krogans. He knew she was a powerful biotic from what Shepard had told him but he hadn't really had much of an opportunity to see her in action on Omega. She was damn impressive, cold, calculating and deadly in the field, while she didn't show the same kind of ruthlessness Shepard could he knew that it took something extra to push Shepard into that. Watching Miranda fight with such control of her movements and commands he wondered what it would take for her to fight in a similar state to Shepard, to show that inner ruthlessness, for he knew that beneath great control lurked something that needed to be controlled.
They were currently pinned down by a seemingly continuous stream of krogans in a rather precarious position. Their course lay through the underbelly of two corroded out hulls over a chasm. The gunfire was most definitely not helping to keep the area stable and sections were swinging dangerously, already a couple of hull fragments had crashed down to the depths below. Granted that was because Miranda had plastered a couple krogan through them with her biotics.
Shepard was watching on tensely, wishing she was down there with them. Her tapping on the console was starting to drive Joker mad.
"Commander I thought you were supposed to be resting those dainty digits of yours not bashing the console with them." Joker teased her.
"Shut up Joker before I show you just how dainty these digits can be." Shepard snapped at him, not taking her eyes off the images before her, forgetting to mute her comms.
"Anxious your princess'll get hurt without you Shepard?" Massani drawled with a smirk as he glanced over to where Miranda had taken position and was now shooting him daggers.
"Massani you know I like you but really, calling yourself a princess just does nothing for that tough masculinity of yours supposedly hiding behind that sagging old arse. Now quit leering at my XO and shoot that fucking krogan charging you." Shepard shot back at him quickly.
Massani swore as the krogan rammed straight through his cover.
Of course Miranda had seen the krogan charging but didn't warn the merc purposefully. If not even Shepard's threats were going to keep him from staring at her arse while in the line of fire then maybe a few hits from a krogan would knock some sense into him.
Massani rammed the butt of his rifle into the face of the krogan, blinding him in one eye and rolling out of its reach after receiving a decent punch to the gut from the reptilian beast. With a roar of his own he opened fire at point blank range filling its head with molten projectiles until it hit the ground very dead as a result.
"We need to get across soon or there won't be anything left to cross." Miranda growled as she watched Jacob toss a krogan over the edge with his biotics. "Jacob you and I'll take the lead, use your biotics to keep throwing them aside. Garrus, Massani hold your fire, we do any more structural damage and we'll be finding out just how deep that chasm really is." she ordered them firmly.
Shepard held her breath watching through Garrus and Massani's feeds as Miranda led the charge across unerringly, not a footstep wrong, not a biotic attack out of place. "Damn how does she do that and still look so..." Shepard began to murmur then realized she was speaking out loud and cleared her throat.
"Hot?" Garrus finished for her.
"Goddamn sexy?" Massani added, not to be left out of this particular opportunity.
"Distracting!" Shepard muttered in annoyance, she had so not meant to say that out loud.
"Yes you are being distracting, you do have a mute Shepard." Miranda growled at her in annoyance, making the other side of the chasm as two more krogan rounded the corner ahead and there was nowhere to throw them. Whipping up her gun she hit one with a warp to reduce its shields and let loose a barrage of bullets to eat away at the rest of its shields.
Jacob, only a few steps behind her, opened fire on it as well to take it down quickly.
"Sometimes I really wonder about that, I think it's broken." Shepard sighed, not talking about the mute for the comms at all. She'd apologize later but she did start to relax marginally as the squad crossed the chasm 'safely' and began to make their way up and towards the labs that Kasumi was currently finding a way in to.
"Your communications device is working optimally Commander Shepard." EDI informed her helpfully.
Joker, Garrus and Massani sniggered at the AI.
"Not exactly what I was referring to EDI, I meant I tend to say things before I think." Shepard mumbled, shifting uncomfortably in her chair.
"But in order to speak you must have thought..." EDI began but was quickly cut off.
"Shepard, bloody mute if you plan on explaining yourself to the AI." Miranda snarled at her, not wanting to hear any more of this nonsense right now.
"I'll explain later EDI." Shepard sighed knowing that she was distracting the ground team right now when they needed to be concentrating.
Shepard was keeping a close eye on Kasumi's feed as the super sneaky thief was scouting ahead and making her way into the labs now. She'd kept rather quiet as she'd worked through the data EDI had gathered and let Miranda do her thing on the ground. Of course there'd been things she would have done differently, for instance Massani was an excellent sniper and with Garrus the pair could have picked off a lot of the mercs quickly and easily. But with Miranda in the lead, and she herself not on the ground, it had been a prudent move on Miranda's behalf to have the man where he was less likely to be distracted.
The premise for this whole interest in O'Keer was that he'd been working with the Collectors to acquire the technology to cure the genophage. From what she was reading he was either completely unsuccessful or their information was wrong and he wasn't trying to cure the genophage.
A blue figure on Kasumi's screen caught her attention. An asari lab technician was fearfully trying to lock down the lab... a very familiar asari. But Kasumi turned so she couldn't quite see enough of the asari.
"Kasumi look back to the lab tech for me will you." Shepard asked quickly.
Kasumi said nothing but turned as ordered, speaking now would give her away.
"I know her. Damnit why do I know her?" Shepard muttered, tapping her console impatiently and scowling at the screen.
The asari turned from what she was doing and unknowingly gave Shepard a clear view of her face.
"Rana, Rana Thanoptis!" Shepard blurted victoriously and thumped her console with a smirk then scowled, "What the hell is she doing here?"
"Who is she?" Joker asked curiously.
"She was a researcher on Virmire for Saren, studying the effects of indoctrination. If she's here and given what the data EDI's gathered shows then O'Keer is not trying to cure the genophage." Shepard shook her head. "Keep going Kasumi, I want this one alive though." she advised the woman and watched as Kasumi moved on.
Kasumi went to find a place she could access the security system that was locked out from EDI to allow the rest of the squad access as she doubted Garrus or any of the guys would be able to fit into the duct she'd used to get in here. She smirked also at the thought of Miranda trying to crawl through a duct with her figure and disposition, the image almost caused her to chuckle out loud.
Miranda had been listening to Shepard's conversation and was a little concerned, "What are you thinking he's up to then?" she asked as she shot the last merc between them and the lab's main entrance, well, only entrance on this side of the ship debris.
"So now you want my commentary?" Shepard's tone was flecked with mirth.
"It could assist me in how I deal with him rather than waste my time as you were doing previously." Miranda shot back at her with a slight growl.
Shepard smiled, "Well then, krogan have primary, secondary and tertiary systems. Over time their evolution has caused, in most krogan, their tertiary and even some of their secondary systems to fail especially with the introduction of the genophage. But the krogan O'Keer's breeding have highly advanced biological systems, almost all of their tertiary systems are fully functional. Yet they all still carry the genophage. Collector technology should have given him the advantage he needed to wipe out the genophage from his... tank breds but he chose not to."
"It sounds as though, if not for the genophage aspect, he's trying to produce the perfect krogan." Miranda mused, a concept she was not unfamiliar with.
The words of Wrex ran through Shepard's mind as she tried to work out the krogan's reasoning. "Perhaps he is. Think about it, any other krogan who mated with his perfect krogan would still be infected with the genophage and therefore it would still pass on to the offspring. Which means his perfect krogan would still have to have all of its systems able to tolerate the genophage without actually being affected by it."
Miranda stopped as she thought about it, "That actually makes sense."
"Again with the surprise that I can have a good idea. Should I be offended Miss Lawson?" Shepard smirked, wishing one of the cameras could get a look at Miranda's face right now.
Miranda scoffed, "Seeing as you are just so full of good ideas care to speculate why your acquaintance Rana is here?" she asked in a tone dripping with sarcasm.
"I don't know exactly what kind of doctor she is but I assume..." Shepard's voice trailed off on a completely different tangent momentarily, "Indoctrination affects the brain meaning she'd have to be some kind of neurologist." she offered before Miranda could tell her to think faster but she wasn't thinking about krogan's right now.
Kasumi got the doors opened and the squad began working their way through the first room that contained a lot of bodies... krogan bodies in varying states of decay but held in horizontal pods as though to study the decay.
"So perhaps she's working on the krogan's minds. Fully grown tank breds do not have the upbringing of normal krogan, meaning they would have to undergo some kind of mental imprinting to develop their minds to a mature enough state to match their physical growth." Miranda took the next logical leap that Shepard was starting to formulate, keeping her voice low in case there were more mercs or lab techs around.
Shepard nodded, more to herself obviously as Miranda couldn't see her, "Well looking at their fighting styles looks like a mental imprint's a work in progress. When you find her I want to talk with her." she smirked, "Tell her who I am and see how she responds."
Upon striding into the small room Rana was hiding in the asari cowered, hands up, "Please don't shoot, I'm-I'm not with the mercs!" she pleaded.
Miranda coolly appraised her and was not impressed with the cowardice she saw, "Working for the Blue Suns does seem a step down in comparison to Saren does it not Rana Thanoptis."
Rana's blue skin paled and her eyes widened, "How-how do you know... are you here for me?" she squeaked in fear.
"Hardly." Miranda scoffed and raised her wrist to activate her omni-tool, "Commander Shepard would like a word with you."
If it was possible for an asari to go white Rana came pretty damn close, "C-commander Shepard? She-she's alive?" she gulped fearfully, taking a shaking step back.
Shepard's upper body appeared holographically over Miranda's wrist and she was smirking with mirth, "Oh yes I am Rana. You know finding you in a place like this makes me have second thoughts about letting you live the last time we met. We don't want me to be thinking that do we now."
Rana backed up against an operating table, "We agree on that." she glanced around nervously.
"So what are you doing here Rana?" Shepard asked with a lilting tone of voice that declared she was in control of this situation and there was nothing the asari could do about it.
Rana took a deep breath, Shepard had let her go last time even though she'd killed everyone else she'd come across and nuked the base. That meant she could be reasoned with, "I'm working with O'Keer. I created a mental template for his subjects but none of them ever completed it, he discarded them for some reason." She glanced at one of the bodies, "Look I know his methods are extreme but he's trying to help his people and he's not looking for a cure to the genophage." she stood a little straighter and looked to the holographic representation of one of the most powerful people she'd ever encountered. "You gave me a second chance last time, had to outrun a nuke in a utility pod but it was a second chance. After what..." she ducked her face a little, "happened with Saren I wanted to help to make a positive difference. Helping the krogan seemed like a way I could do that."
Shepard considered her long and hard.
Rana withered further under that glare.
"You truly wish to atone?" Shepard asked in a low voice.
Rana nodded, "Yes. Why else would I come to a hole like this? The view's hardly anything special." she muttered.
Shepard smiled slowly, "Not like on Virmire huh, that was quite the view." It had indeed been a beautiful world, would still be so if not for the horrible memories that scarred it in Shepard's mind. "So to have studied indoctrination and have prepared a template for krogans to imprint on you'd have to have quite the education in neurology correct?"
Rana frowned a little, a sarcastic retort bitten back in the face of the heavily armed and very pissed off looking squad and Shepard's rather destructive reputation, "Yes."
Shepard leaned forward a little, "This templating, being able to imprint things into another's mind, if it can be imprinted can it be undone?"
Miranda stiffened and her blue eyes hardened into sharp spears of ice as she knew exactly what Shepard was asking about and it had nothing to do with the krogans.
Rana swallowed nervously at the human female's reaction to the question, "Uh, it depends on what you're asking. The imprints didn't take on the krogans, O'Keer pulled them off it before they could be completed."
"Shepard now is not the time for an interrogation." Miranda interrupted suddenly.
"I'm sending a shuttle to pick you up Rana, I've got some things to discuss with you." Shepard leaned forward a little, "And don't try sneaking off, you do not wish to try out my patience."
"I know how you work, you're probably going to blow this place up anyway and if you're actually offering a ride out this time I'll take it." Rana responded instantly, looking almost relieved as though she'd been contemplating how to escape a nuke in this terrain.
"Good. All yours Miranda." Shepard smirked and her face vanished as she terminated the call.
"Kasumi find us a suitable landing location for the shuttle. You will accompany her." Miranda coolly glared at Rana.
Rana swallowed and nodded, not about to disobey any commands from these people, the wrath of Shepard was legendary and she did not want to invoke it by pissing off her people.
Striding into the lab where O'Keer was working quickly on a console attached to a rather large tank bred krogan Miranda was momentarily incensed.
"You are not Shepard, no wonder it took you so long." O'Keer's deep voice rumbled.
"You're right, I'm not Shepard. If I were it would have taken longer as she tends to get very distracted." she retorted.
Garrus cleared his throat of the chuckle that had threatened at that.
O'Keer did chuckle, "She does like to make an entrance and a fiery exit."
"You were expecting us?" Miranda didn't deign to respond to the comment as it was quite an accurate description of Shepard's usual MO.
"Yes. Some fool calling himself the Illusive Man contacted me and warned me of her coming and that she has an offer of some kind for me. Why is she not here?" Now he turned to look at the human female.
"She recently punched the face of a krogan warlord out the back of his hump for pissing her off, her hand is still healing and unlike krogan's we humans don't regenerate as quickly. You can speak with her face to face on the Normandy." Miranda looked to him expectantly.
"Well sounds better than 'she got her arse whipped by a punching bag'." Shepard sighed.
Miranda pursed her lips but made no response as the krogan was laughing at the moment.
"After what she did to Saren, that is hardly surprising. But I go nowhere without my prototype." he became serious once more and gestured to the tank bred.
Miranda put her hand on her hip and shifted her body position slightly, for a human male she would have become seductive but for a krogan it was dominating power and strength they respected, both of which she exuded now. "You seem quick to throw aside the others, what makes this one different?"
"He is perfect, through him I have given the genophage the greatest insult that can be suffered." His eyes lit up and his tone became passionate, which was quite surprising for a krogan as no one had ever seen a krogan get passionate about anything other than battle. "To be ignored."
"Huh." Shepard sat up a little at that, they hadn't quite anticipated that particular reasoning though she should have in retrospect.
Before any more could be said another voice boomed around them.
"It was you who released the krogans! You will pay for your betrayal O'Keer!" Jedore yelled in fury.
Pipes began to clank then a hissing sound filled the air.
"No! She will destroy my prototype!" O'Keer turned back to his precious tank bred, "You must stop her. I will come with you so long as Shepard takes my prototype. She will understand. She is krogan in heart."
"Kill the bitch." Shepard growled to Miranda, she did understand, "EDI see if you can find a way to hack into that system and shut off whatever it is Jedore's doing."
"Where is she?" Miranda asked O'Keer, she'd planned on doing just as Shepard had ordered as her omni-tool registered it was a toxic gas being released.
"Through that door go down a level, she's in the main storage facility." O'Keer nodded to the window along the right wall that no one had bothered looking out of as O'Keer had been their target.
Miranda didn't need to say anything as she jogged quickly to the door opposite to where they'd entered.
Garrus took a moment to look out the window and clenched his mandibles at the rows upon rows of krogan tank breds just waiting to be brought out of stasis along with the two YMIR mechs their scans had picked up.
Shepard took note of what Garrus was seeing, "You want to tell her or shall I Garrus?" her friend had been unusually quiet without her physically present to banter with.
"Lots of stasis pods and the two mechs down there." Garrus informed Miranda, quickly jogging after her, not aware that the communication from Shepard had been private.
"I figured she was holding the mechs at her position." Miranda acknowledged, not slowing down her approach. "Garrus deal with Jedore, Massani any krogan she releases, Jacob you and I'll handle the mechs." she ordered them quickly and concisely.
Rushing through the door to the storage facility they found themselves on a platform lined with pods they quickly took cover behind as the mechs and a couple of krogans Jedore had already released opened fire on them.
"These krogan are mine! You will pay for your interference with your lives!" Jedore yelled at them from a platform on the opposite side of the room where she was doing something on a console.
"I think she's talked enough." Miranda looked to Garrus pointedly.
He nodded, sniper already in hand and lining up a shot.
Jacob had moved further along the platform to engage the closer mech while Massani had positioned himself above the access ramp the krogan would be charging up to reach them.
Shepard again watched anxiously, they needed her down there and she was stuck up here because she'd lost her temper and almost ruined her hands. She wasn't aware of the dull ache developing in her hand from constantly tapping her fingertips firmly on the console.
Joker didn't dare say anything to her but muttered under his breath which was completely ignored by the Commander, ignored or just unheard he couldn't decide.
Miranda overloaded the shields of the first mech then warped its armour making it a more vulnerable target for Jacob's assault rifle.
Garrus dropped the shields of Jedore but she quickly took cover before he could fire the kill shot.
Massani growled as he unleashed a torrent of gunfire on an advancing krogan that having only just been brought out of stasis had no armour or weapons and was charging blindly to its death but was closely followed by another. He had to quickly fall back as the second krogan bellowed and crouched ready to charge him in uncontrolled blood rage.
Miranda looked up from her cover sharply as Massani was backpedalling quickly behind her.
"Miranda don't move!" Shepard warned her, while in blood rage the krogan would only focus on what it thought was a threat and crouched down low as she was Miranda wouldn't be taken for a threat if she did nothing to gain its attention.
Miranda waited and watched as a krogan raced passed her, completely ignoring her, orange blood spurting from the bullet wounds Massani was inflicting upon it as he raced for cover.
From Garrus's viewpoint Shepard saw the second mech lumbering towards the platform with its rocket launcher raised in Miranda's general direction, "Miri rocket!" she warned, her tone strained with being unable to do more.
Miranda strengthened her biotic shields and flattened against the pod which shortly shook with the impact of two rockets.
Another explosion rocked the central area as Jacob finished off the first mech.
"Huh eat that!" Jacob grinned in triumph and turned his attention to the next mech only to notice Jedore lining up a rocket launcher on him, "Shit!" he dove out the way but not quick enough to avoid all of the heat from the rocket.
"Garrus kill her already!" Miranda snapped at the turian.
"Can't get a clear shot of her from here, finding a better position keep her occupied." Garrus returned sharply, moving down the ramp to try and sneak up onto Jedore's platform without being seen.
"No problem there." Jacob muttered, shaking his head a little at the spots that were dancing across his vision.
"Commander I cannot access the lab's systems. O'Keer's life signs are failing." EDI advised, sounding concerned that she had failed in doing what she was tasked with.
"Closed system right, typical old school, matches in with broadcasting orders over loud speaker." Shepard muttered, clenching her fists and almost thumping the console if it wasn't for the twinge of pain that forced her to remember why she was sitting up here and not down there. "Kasumi, we're losing O'Keer, can you access their security and vent the room of toxic fumes?"
"On it." Kasumi acknowledged, the shuttle was on approach now as she'd found a nice clear spot up on the roof, or rather the outer hull of the ship the Blue Suns had set up in.
Garrus got into position with a clear line of sight on Jedore but if he didn't get her in one hit she'd just change cover before the second shot could be fired. "Miranda can you take out her shields?" he murmured.
Miranda quickly retargeted her omni-tool, "Ready."
"Now." Garrus murmured, his sights lined up on Jedore's blonde head and anticipating that as soon as Miranda hit her shields she'd duck behind her cover which would still leave her perfectly open for his shot.
Jedore's shields flashed out of existence and she cursed, dropping back down quickly before she could take another shot at the dark skinned man who was making a mess of her mech. Less than a second later her head snapped to the side and she hit the deck with a sniper bullet through her brain.
Massani dropped a fourth unarmoured and unarmed krogan, the last one that had been released, and turned his attention to the last threat in the room.
"Miranda leave the mech to the boys, Kasumi's managed to get the lab venting but O'Keer's not going to make it if you don't get there now." Shepard warned though she doubted Miranda would be able to save him now.
"Damnit." Miranda hissed and shot to her feet, sprinting back up to the lab. By the time she got into the lab O'Keer was slumped on the floor, a message playing on the console.
"I don't know what the Collectors want with Humans. Everything I traded with them is in my prototype. This one grunt. My legacy. Pure..." his image wheezed and he began to hack up his lungs, falling to the floor into the position his body was now in.
"O'Keer's a no go." Miranda reported with a sigh, there was nothing she could do for him now, "What do you want me to do about the prototype? It would be excellent for study." Miranda suggested but this wasn't her call to make.
"Bring him. Might as well get something out of this." Shepard would wait until she saw the tank bred herself before deciding if she'd hand it over to Cerberus scientists or not.
When the guys were done finishing off the mech they loaded the large stasis pod onto the shuttle, Massani grumbling most of the way.
Miranda glared at Rana the entire way up to the Normandy and said nothing to her. She'd be having words with Shepard over this, she wasn't about to let an asari poke about in her brain, she didn't need help to figure this out.
So merry Christmas, Happy New Years or whatever festive occassion you celebrate this time of year.
There may be some typo's as I may not have read through it all properly, must confess got a little blocked with writing this chapter. I wanted to show a couple snapshots of Miri in battle but couldn't visualize them until today and you've been waiting over a week now which wasn't intended, sorry!
No teasers today about what could come next as I haven't decided which scene to put up next. You'll just have to wait in eager anticipation! At least I hope it will be eager anticipation ;)
Love the reviews! :D